Voters around the country Tuesday weighed in on a range of state measures from legalizing marijuana to banning gay marriage and scrapping the tradition of winner takes all electoral votes in a presidential election. Gay-marriage bans bulldozed to victory in all 11 states that voted on the measure: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah.

But it was Colorado's initiative that could have had the most immediate effect. The measure, which was defeated, would apportion the state's nine electoral votes based on each presidential candidate's share of the popular vote and would go into effect for this year's election.

All but two states give all of their electoral votes to the candidate who wins a majority of the state's popular vote. Nebraska and Maine give the winner of the statewide vote two electoral votes, then allocate the rest based on the winners in congressional districts.

Elsewhere, Montana became the 10th state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, but Alaskans defeated a more ambitious proposal to decriminalize pot altogether. In Oregon, voters rejected a measure that would have dramatically expanded its existing medical marijuana program.

Federal drug czar John Walters was heartened by the outcome in Alaska.

"This public health victory reaffirms the simple, inescapable fact that no family, no community, no state is better off with more drug use," he said.

Nevertheless, 43% of the Alaskan voters supported the decriminalization effort and backers promised to revisit the issue.

In a year when same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, the issue made its way onto 11 ballots. Opponents said the measures were a strategy by Republicans to galvanize their conservative base and get them to the polls. But both supporters and opponents said that during a particularly contentious election year, turnout would likely have been high with or without the proposed amendments.

"It's conceivable this measure might turn out some people of faith that are typically apolitical," said Mike White, executive director of Oregon's Defense of Marriage Coalition. "But I think in the big scheme of things ... this is going to be a large turnout and our measure doesn't have that big of a role in it."

Amendments banning same-sex marriage were passed earlier this year in Louisiana and Missouri. They joined Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Nebraska, whose constitutions define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

In California, voters decided to fund research on embryonic stem cells. They also rejected a change to the state's "three-strikes" law. The law says any third felony conviction, from shoplifting to car theft, can result in a life sentence. California is the only state among 23 with three-strikes laws to include the lesser offenses. The ballot measure would have changed that to say that a third criminal offense must be a serious or violent felony to warrant a life sentence.

• Results pending: Authorize Miami-Dade, Broward counties to hold referendums on allowing slot machines at racetracks, jai alai frontons. Opponents and supporters had 50%. If the margin of victory is one-half of 1% or less, local elections officials automatically must order a machine recount.

• Approved measure to bar licensing of doctors who commit three or more incidents of medical malpractice.